Politics isn’t usually a preferred topic for commencement addresses. Then again, these aren’t usual times.

David Gergen, CNN political analyst and adviser to U.S. presidents including Nixon, Reagan and Clinton, took the stage at Elon University Saturday and detoured off the usual “follow your dreams” and “these are the best times of your lives” kind of messages. In fact, he told this group of graduates, their friends and families to do something else: Fight for the rights of everyone.

He got a standing ovation. That’s understandable. He also got more than a few sideways looks from those who disagree. In some ways that’s more difficult to fathom. In America the rights of all should be important to us all. Usually this is the case.

Then again, these aren’t usual times.

Gergen said a lot of other things but it really all added up to one central theme: North Carolina is in a heap of trouble. He can say so because he’s a native Tar Heel, born and raised in Durham. It’s a state where his son still lives with his family. It’s a place he visits often. Like many of us, this is home no matter what. And the things he sees occurring here, a place he referred to Saturday as “our beloved state,” has him deeply concerned.

He’s not alone.

“After years of struggle to become a just and fair people, we are sliding backwards. We are not only damaging our reputation but putting our fellow citizens at risk,” Gergen said, recalling the evolution of North Carolina from a dirt-poor state with Jim Crow laws and few economic prospects to a more moderate land of greater opportunity, prosperity, innovation, growth and education.

But things shifted a few years ago.

“The moderation that characterized our state, the belief among Republicans and Democrats that we’re all in this together — gave way to a new, angrier extremist politics.”

The recent divisive matter of House Bill 2 was really just the final straw. He recited a short list of outcomes from what he called a politics of extremism touching on everything from voting rights to taxes, higher education and marriage rights.

“This is not the North Carolina that we all loved — a North Carolina dedicated to equal opportunity and a growing and inclusive prosperity,” Gergen said.

Saying that he wished the federal government had kept its nose out of HB2 so North Carolina could perhaps sort this mess out on its own, Gergen lambasted the legislation as foolhardy and harmful.

“Now, incredibly, we have wandered into a needless fight over the bathroom rights of transgender people,” Gergen said. “It is hard to believe that we have broken two of the cardinal rules of politics — first if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Second, leave as much power as you can in the hands of local people.”

He echoed the sentiments of many by saying the General Assembly acted too hastily, taking action when none was necessary to script a one-size-fits all solution that punishes transgender people while addressing a problem that didn’t exist. In the process, it made “North Carolina the poster child of backward-looking leadership.”

“Now we’re in the same headlines as Mississippi,” he said.

Ouch.

Gergen took pains to define the problem as not about Democrats vs. Republicans or liberals vs. conservatives. He’s the moderate after all who counseled Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. He noted that a conservative Republican governor in Georgia vetoed a transgender bill. The Republican governor of South Carolina took down the confederate flag. He acknowledged that people might disagree with him and that their disagreement has merit. It’s all complicated.

It’s also how political discourse and compromise is usually supposed to work. Then again, these aren’t usual times.

Yes, people who disagree can still work together to find solutions to the problems that vex our state and nation. In fact, Gergen sounded much like former Republican Gov. Jim Martin who has also criticized the politics of polarization that put “our beloved state” in jeopardy. When no one listens, everyone loses.

And that’s how it usually works, too — or in this case, fails to work.

Madison Taylor is editor of the Times-News. Contact him by email at mtaylor@thetimesnews.com

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